Page 105 of Bloodmoon Ritual

“Don’t go to sleep tonight,” I said, not knowing what I was going to do. Only that I wasn’t going to let her die.

Rhyder wasn’t going to killme,so I was the only one who could do this.

Once I had some stew, I moved in a round-about way to where William was sitting on a stump outside his tent and spoke to him under cover of picking a few wild herbs.

“You’re in danger,” I said in a low voice. “You are an Unsaved and your drones failed today. You’ve been teaching them to run your machines. They don’t need you. Why not take Norah and go once it’s dark?”

“There’s so many lights,” William said, stroking his beard. “How could we get out? They have a guard, too.”

“Let me deal with that,” I said. “Just make sure you are up and ready.”

I felt strangely unafraid all day.

Maybe I was in shock. Or maybe seeing what my brother had done for me made me less afraid.

But either way, I fed Rhyder broth, then bread and meat, and put salves on all his injuries and cuts. There were so many, my fingers tracing in awe the effects of six years of thorns digging into his flesh. Six years of penance and pain because he thought it would bring me back to him. Then I watched as he fell asleep.

I thought he was sleeping soundly, but when I went to open the flap, he caught my leg.

“Whatever you are doing is dangerous,” he said, his grip like iron on me. “I won’t let you do it.”

“Just—just let me do this,” I hissed in agony. “I know it’s a little bit dangerous. But I have to get Norah out of here. It’s only a few paces away. They just have to make it safely past the lights.”

Our eyes met and for a long moment Rhyder said nothing.

“I’ll come with you,” he finally said.

“The best chance is for us to slip away quietly,” I said. “Please just let me do this.”

He finally nodded.

I left the tent, extinguishing one light as I crept around to where Norah slept. I touched her arm gently, motioning to William, whose face looked petrified but set and determined. There were four lights in total that surrounded the circle of tents, and the more I could extinguish, the better our chances of escape.

The one guard was all the way on the other side and he was facing the roadway smoking.

But when we went to extinguish the second light, it alerted him, and I heard his sharp “who’s there?”

And then I heard Rhyder yell, “intruders!” at the same time, and the other two lights went out.

The camp immediately exploded into pandemonium, and I went to run with them, but I didn’t know which direction we were meant to be going in the pitch darkness.

For a moment I felt horrible panic, terror of Eli catching me and killing me in the dark, and then I felt my brother’s strong hand on my back.

“Follow me”

He took my hand and I took Nora’s and he led us with the primal night-dark instincts of a big cat through the spare trees and out to where I felt a dirt track under my feet.

Rhyder lit a small flashlight and handed a piece of paper over to William.

“Here,” he said. “If you can find anything out about this, leave it in the hollow of the big pine outside our camp. I’ll check it every few days. Now head south. Don’t put on your lights until you’re well away from this place.”

They left hand-in-hand and I let out a long breath as I saw them go.

“Do you wish you were going with them?” Rhyder asked.

“No,” I said, truthfully. “No, I don’t. Let’s go to sleep now.”

When we went back the whole camp was in an uproar.

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